


(never) on time

by faedemon



Series: youth becomes you, i swear it [4]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Character Study, Classpects (Homestuck), Family Dynamics, Gen, Humanstuck, Strilondes, Worldbuilding, essentially this is exploring how classpects would affect the kids in a no-sburb setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:35:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23633230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faedemon/pseuds/faedemon
Summary: There’s a peculiar something about the Striders and the Lalondes. Well—there areplentyof peculiar somethings about them, but in particular it’s not their hair or their odd manner or the strange way they stare. It’s that all of them have this off-kilter something. It’s that the twins always arrive on time and the triplets never do, that you can feel the pierce of their gaze even behind sunglasses, even when they aren’t looking.Can be read standalone, but makes references to the other fics in the series.
Relationships: Auto-Responder | Lil Hal & Rose Lalonde & Roxy Lalonde & Dave Strider & Dirk Strider, Auto-Responder | Lil Hal & Roxy Lalonde & Dirk Strider, Rose Lalonde & Dave Strider, Roxy Lalonde & Dirk Strider
Series: youth becomes you, i swear it [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1549204
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	(never) on time

**Author's Note:**

> so this fic makes a bunch of references to a fic in the same series that I... haven't written yet? lmao. essentially, bro is the strilonde's dad & is named Derrick. roxanne (beta mom lalonde) divorced his ass, and offered to all of her kids to change their last names. rose, roxy, and hal decided to change to being lalondes, but dirk and dave declined for their own reasons which will be elaborated on once i write that fic, lmao
> 
> for the most part you can read this without reading the other fics in this series :)

There’s a peculiar something about the Striders and the Lalondes. Well—there are _plenty_ of peculiar somethings about them, but in particular it’s not their hair or their odd manner or the strange way they stare. It’s that all of them have this off-kilter something. It’s that the twins always arrive on time and the triplets never do, that you can feel the pierce of their gaze even behind sunglasses, even when they aren’t looking.

It’s that Dave Strider, who will be Dave Lalonde when the shadow of Derrick Strider finally slips from his back, ticks, almost. When he’s near, the hours seem to pass by exactly as they’re meant to, second by second by minute by day, and every moment makes sense in a way it doesn’t when you’re whiling the time away, staring at the wall of your bedroom. The world doesn’t slow when Dave Strider is around, but you do find yourself grounded in the moment, hearing the phantom echo of the second hand tick by. He’s always on time, when you invite him over. Him and his sister.

The thing about Rose Lalonde isn’t that she commands the same kind of presence Dave does, because she doesn’t—when she’s around and he isn’t, you won’t notice the hours passing until they’re long gone. No, Rose is closer to an epiphany, the way she makes your head spin. If Dave throws the hours into clarity, Rose throws the world. She’s the one you go to when a problem makes your chest ache, because being with her unravels its strands until you can see it clearly. Here is the solution and here is what might happen; it’s all so clear, sitting next to her, pulled into that aura of _knowing_. She makes things make sense in the same way Dave makes you understand just how much time you have to use, to waste.

Dirk Strider and Hal Lalonde have the same pull to them. For some people it hasn’t quite been a good thing—it took a long time and a lot of prodding from Roxy for them to recognize their less-than-savory behaviors—but either way they have a gravity. People get sucked into their orbit and try to get close, and it’s a peculiar thing, how they manage to keep such a wide distance between themselves and their friends and still keep people coming. An aloof, mysterious front only draws intrigue for so long before a person gets bored, but the people who walk with them don’t. Dirk and Hal figured out somewhere how to grab onto your very soul, how to hook a tendril of interest right into your heart, and drag you to tag along behind them. (Derrick has that same pull. It’s why the twins’ and triplets’ mother married him, why she had five kids with him, why it took a sword through her little Dave’s side to divorce him and file a restraining order.)

Roxy Lalonde is the enigma. Dirk and Hal don’t share, but she does, and somehow she makes you feel the same as they do—like no matter how much she tells you, you’ll never know her, really. There’s a moat of pitch-black void between you and her, and she’ll smile, reach across the gap to brush your hand, but she won’t help you over. There’s a quiet mystery to her; she knows more than you think and she’ll leave you guessing. She’s the type of girl to walk with silent footsteps, and if you’re lucky enough to be invited over to her house, you’ll see her startle her siblings without trying more than once. (She’ll never get her mother, though, because Roxanne Lalonde has her own Void. Her own knowing.)

Their idiosyncrasies aren’t necessarily all that strange, looked at individually, but the sum total of the Strilondes is that they’re _something._ Their friends, too, have something about them, touching them. This… importance, perhaps, but more than that. A sense of specialty. Rose has her knowing and Dave has his tick of the clock, and each of the people that circle them has their own _thing_. John Egbert has a breeziness to him. Nepeta seems to know your heart better than you do, and Terezi your mind.

The Strilondes stick out, though. None of their friends live in a house so cramped full of aura, of gravity, of knowing and understanding and ticking and pulling. All those blonde heads, gangly limbs, bright eyes and reflective lenses—they come together to form a miasma. Here is Light and Time and Heart and Void piled together, onto-into-among each other, so bright and so dark in turn it’s hard to look upon them clearly, and at the same time there is nothing.

At the same time, there is a house, and its occupants, and Rose Lalonde is no more a girl than you might be, Dave Strider no more a boy. Dirk and Hal and Roxy are no more than a snickering bunch of older siblings. Their friends are no more than kids, laughing and shouting and pushing each other into the dirt. The world does no more than spin, and comets soar by Earth without hitting it. The games people play don’t reach outside the screen, and April 13th is just a birthday. The kids are just kids, Time is just time and Breath is just the wind, winding its way between the trees.

(And Sburb never existed in this universe, but the Classes and the Aspects only described what was already there. Light might just be knowledge but Rose _knows_. Dirk and Hal in all timelines must unlearn the behaviors that make them Princes, and there will always be a strange sort of distance between Roxy and the rest. Dave will always be careful because Derrick beat it into him, and that carefulness makes him steady, sinks his feet into the Earth and makes his mind pay attention. Time doesn’t speed up around him because he’s watching every moment, waiting for the next punch or kick or flash of a blade.

The Classes and the Aspects don’t exist here and neither does Sburb but the kids will embody them anyway, as inherent as Heart, as eternal as Time.)

**Author's Note:**

> happy 4/13 guys! if we make it through today we can make it through 2020
> 
> if you liked this fic, please leave a comment, and consider reading the others in the series! it means a lot to me :)


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